Evaluation

Media Evaluation

After all the hard work and the constant editing we finally finished our thriller clip, we had our final clip to send off to the examiner. We definitely made sure there were no mistakes and made sure if there could have been improvements, no improvements were needed as we were very sure this was the best it could be. We definitely created an effective piece, we all put our ideas and teamwork which was a great outcome. Everyone completed their thriller clip, and we all watched each others clip to get feedback from the other group to help us with our evaluation and get different views about the clip and to see if they understood what kind of effects we were trying to interpret in this clip.

To help us understand the whole concept of what makes a good thriller film, we had to watch different type’s of thrillers and what made it so effective . We had to make our media product seem real, make it seem like a real and professional piece, we watched movie openings of thriller films like “the shining” , “ what lies beneath” etc and brainstormed why the genre was a thriller how it created the tension and suspense and why it was so effective, there were a lot of ideas to choose from to make a great thriller film, there are so many different aspects of a thriller film, you have to be careful with every technique you use and try to include the main features needed for each shot . Everything is important in the scene, everything within that space of the camera play an important part to create a thriller and make it suspenseful, e.g. the setting, props, lighting, make-up, shot angle etc. in lesson we watched a documentary about thriller films and how it can be portrayed in different ways in the opening scene.




We didn’t want our thriller film to be targeted at older people over their 20’s it was kind of difficult to represent that social group because the actors were young, we preferred to target the “teens” to have more of connection with the that certain social group because we understand what teenagers prefer in a film, and how to attract them. The genre is supernatural thriller, very freaky quite chilling, and this is what teens want in a film, this is what their interested in, they like high levels of suspense and guessing what’s going to happen next, and why this is happening, their curious in knowing these things, and for them to find out these things they have to carry on watching the film, and this is how we pull them into watching more and more of it.

We tried to make out thriller film seem as real as possible like the thriller films on television which are distributed by big Hollywood names and are worldwide. This was the general idea for our film we wanted it to be big and worldwide, if we was able to show it, I would want to be bigger then just a little UK film release, I would want to release this film in cinemas and advertise it everywhere and then release it out on DVD. Personally I think if it was released in the UK, the film would turn out well but not as successful as it would be if it was worldwide, and to make it worldwide it would have to be released in America as well, that’s where our film would succeed and be recognized by big Hollywood names.

Vs.

By attracting our audience we have to understand them for them to understand our film, even though we don’t have a big star in our film, we don’t need one, our film is fresh , it really connects with our targeted audiences, and for them to see how we are trying to reach out to them, we would advertise as much as possible for example adverts/trailers on TV ,billboards on buses, but I wouldn’t suggest advertising our film in MacDonald’s because it would ruin the whole atmosphere of our “thriller” film, people wouldn’t’t take it seriously and were not targeting children under 12 years, so we have to be careful with how we advertise it, we have to reach out to them by thinking how they find film’s and where they watch it, we need to use the same technology they use like the internet and TV and advertise our film in places where they are more likely to see it.

Even though it take’s a whole lot of experience to be a professional film maker and be in the media industry, I have learnt so much in just making a 2-3 minute thriller which really taught me things I didn’t know about, it gave me a taste of a whole different side to media and how difficult it can be to create an effect you need in a film, you have to be careful with every little detail and give out the right idea to the audiences. Everything played an important part in making a thriller, the camera; using a lot of different angles, shots, effects, I didn’t really use the camera because I was one of the actresses so it was mainly another person in my group but I still manage to take time and understand how to use the camera with the tripod and without and shoot some angles to understand and see what kind of effect each shot gives. We used IMAC computers and made edited out film on final cut pro, it was quite a challenge for me because I have never used final cut pro and I found it difficult to understand how it works, but as lessons went pass I learnt something new everyday. I started to understand how films were made, it was interesting, I had a completely different idea on how films were made but now it is clearer to me, you have to put a lot of hard work in to it. Overtime technology has improved and it is much easier for filmmaker’s to create any effect they want. Each lesson we would have to write about on the internet and blog them, and explain everything we did and talk about everything we learned, just updating everything we done and how far we have gotten, blogging really did help, if we didn’t understand something we would do our own research and learn more. The internet is an essential technology to the media world nowadays anyone can be discovered by using You Tube, vimeo and blogs, you can just post your videos on them which is simple and easy, this is part of advertising a film by using the internet, and especially our film is targeted towards teens. Teenagers use the internet a lot; this is what is needed to be discovered and to get feedback from the wide range of audiences, who use the internet.

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Before making our thriller we had to do some practical work and practice using the camera and doing different shots and learned about match-cuts, which I never knew about and when I learned about match-cuts I was able to absorb the information quickly and was able to do a great match cut scene on final cut pro after filming and logging and capturing, I learned how to edit and join shots together to make it run smoothly, every detail of a film is crucial, once we got that out of the way we practiced using storyboards to understand how we have to set out our film. Planning the whole thing was kind of hard because we couldn’t agree on an idea, all the ideas were great but too complicated, but then we all agreed on an idea which was a great idea, this shows that teamwork is important we were all able to co-operate with each other and listen to each others opinion we also learnt about working as a team. When we first filmed, we had the experience of using a camera from practicing so we was able to work quick instead of figuring out how to use the equipment. Editing was the longest part we had to log and capture then figure out what scene to put first and also remember the time limit, we had to use all the spare time we had to edit, and come to workshops, if it wasn’t for all the hard work and effort we put in to make this thriller it wouldn’t of been good as it should be it wouldn’t of reached it’s potential, but my group were very dedicated to the media work and so throughout this whole film process, I personally think I have achieved a lot and learned everything I needed to learn about film making and I would like to carry on media in the future to learn more about different film genres and how they create different effects for each film and coming up with new ideas.

Our second filming session (King's cross)

Due to the snow on Monday we weren’t able to attend media lesson and therefore not able to film our thriller clip so on Thursday’s lesson we had to pick up the speed and film a lot. Ola wasn’t able to attend this lesson because he had the flu so me Henok and Sevin went to kings cross to film that scene instead of the scene in the media room because we needed Ola as well to do that scene so we filmed the part at king’s cross because only one character was present in this scene. It was only a 5 minute ride on the bus without no traffic, it wasn’t to far and we had enough time to film what we needed. I had brought in all my clothes and props needed for this scene so we was all well prepared and as we arrive to the industrial site in kings cross there was still some snow on the floor from Monday and this was an advantage for the setting of this scene because it created the effect we wanted to make it look supernatural.

When we arrived at king’s cross gas-o-meter we weren’t able to film next to the gas-o-meter because of some construction work being done, we asked the guard if we were able to but his boss didn’t allow us because of health and safety, but we were able to film near to it outside the fence and we still had a great view of the gas-o-meter it was a shame that we couldn’t film next to it but we had to work with what we had. It was still close enough but it would have been great to be able to pan up from the bottom of it. Once we set up the camera and tripod, I already had my costume on and Sevin helped me make it dirty with dirt and mud from the floor .The dirt on the clothes would create that sense of suspicion to the audience, they would ask themselves why has she got dirty clothes, what happened? We give them some information but still make them wonder.

As soon as Sevin finished with my clothes she also messed up my hair and put dirt on my face. Henok got the camera and tripod ready to film, he already had the angle and shot he was going to film first which was the gas-o-meter, he done more then one shot of it, he done pan up, long shot, close-up, long-shot to a close-up. And then it was time for me to be filmed, we placed the red light which is supposed to be a device which the “alien” is meant to protect, there was a lot of close ups of the red light, and then a close-up of me picking up the red light device and slowly bringing it up, while the camera is panning up towards my face. Then afterwards we had to shoot the pan up of me quite a few times to get the right timing and then the red light came up to my face and I looked in the red light, Henok did a close up shot of my eyes staring in the light, then I turned the red light towards the gas-o-meter while Henok was following what I was doing and got a shot of the gas-o-meter and me facing towards it putting the red light up in the air.

For each of these scenes we had to shoot it more then once, we needed a lot of different variety of shots, angles etc. because we didn’t want to come back again to king’s cross over a silly mistake. We decided to look over the footage before we left to go back to school, and an error occurred, by accident the camera was left on recording when we thought it was not recording so it wasted a lot of the tape, we were still confused on how to use the camera we didn’t know if it was recording or when it wasn’t.


Overall, we filmed quite a lot, we could have done more but time went by quickly and we had to return to college, even with the problems with the camera recording at the wrong time which messed up the whole order of the film, we were able to sort it out with our quick thinking and team work we put a lot of group effort and I find that we did well and captured all the shots necessary for this thriller film.

cancellation of lesson

On Monday’s lesson our lesson was cancelled due to poor weather conditions, it started snowing during the night and carried on snowing during the day, making it impossible for vehicles including London transport to operate, and also dangerous for pedestrians to walk outside. The cancellation of our lesson affected our group severely; our precious time had been lost, thus leaving us to fall behind more than we’ve already had. The snow did give us an advantage; we could have filmed the snow to create the atmosphere wanted in this particular scene.

We got the idea of filming the snow from ‘The Shining', which is a thriller film and the snow was very effective in the film it really created high levels of tension, we wanted to create that same tension, so the snow was a big advantage for us. Sadly we were not able to come in school because of the dangers and the public transport not running, my group were stuck at home and we could not use the snow in our footage which was really a downside. But we hope that the snow wouldn't melt and that there would be some snow left when we return to school on Thursday.

Even though the lesson was cancelled it did not mean we should just relax our group had to think about what we were going to do for the next lesson, create more ideas to make improve our thriller and make it more effective and really think about every aspect of how a thriller is created. and then we all would have more of a variety of ideas and would be able to present it and explain the ideas and try put them together or choose the best one, we would share our ideas on Thursday for rebeccas lesson and we will be more prepared.

Our first filming lesson

In this lesson we finally started our filming session. We planned everything out we new what our props were, our characters, our camera shots etc. we decide to film our thriller in a media room next doors to ours because it was the perfect setting there was a black curtain to make it dark and different kinds of lighting on the ceiling which we could manipulate to our advantage .

We set out all the tables and put two tables together and covered it in a black cloth, that is wear the “alien” is meant to lye and another table to put a case on top of it for the “doctor” to use. We used red lighting and in contrast with the white lighting. The red lighting indicated blood, danger, fear etc. which is what we needed for our thriller film. In this filming session we only started to film Ola because we still hadn’t decided about what we should do with the alien yet, who should play the role and didn’t have the props for it either. So we decided to film it next lesson we would be more ready then, it would have been better to film the alien on that day because we could have done a lot of scenes in just one day.

We done shots of Ola waiting outside the door and entering but to do this and also build up tension we needed to have close ups of him opening the door and a close up of him locking the door we wanted to use match cuts for this scene so we had to do a lot of different shots to have a variety to choose from. As we see Ola enter the door we notice that we don’t see his identity which we done on purpose to keep the audience guessing who this mysterious person is, we only show his outline and hands but that’s all we reveal at the moment to build the tension needed in out thriller film.

After entering the door we done a couple of different shots of Ola walking up to the table where the case is. To follow Ola going to the table we done a low-level shot of Ola feet walking towards his destination. Then there’s a pan up of him still not revealing his face, then there’s an over the shoulder shot showing what actions he’s doing but keeping the audience guessing on what he’s going to do. There’s also a close up of Ola opening the case which creates high levels of tension, the audience want to know what’s in the case and wait with anxiety. At this moment of the over the shoulder shot Ola opens the case and reveals what’s inside by putting on latex gloves which is a key significance to the audience. The lesson was coming to an end even though we filmed quite a few good shots and it seemed we had done a lot we didn’t film as much as expected because of all the preparation needed and all the interruptions from other college students entering the room which ruined some of the shots. Our group were now used the whole idea of filming and now had the experience of it so it should be much easier to film in our next lesson.

Props

Props needed for this thriller film

-brief case
-lab coat
-red contact lenses
-rope
-blind fold
-black sheet
-three tables
-knife/scissors
-red flashing light(bike light)
-latex gloves
-red top ripped trousers
-mud/dirt
-blood

thriller title DIS-CONNECTED

during a Monday's lesson our group had finished plotting our ideas for our thriller clip and now we had to make up a title for it, we thought about the storyline the whole idea and the purpose, then one of my group member came up with a name, i think it was Ola and he suggested we call it DIS-CONNECTED because it links to the plot and how the alien character has been separated from an important device it was meant to protect and it had a kind of link/connection to this device and so therefore it has been disconnected from it. it was the perfect title for this film.

choosing the right idea

In one of my media lesson me n my group had trouble deciding on what our idea should be for our thriller clip even though we had a lot of ideas to choose from, they were either to complicated to do or similar to the other groups idea. That day was the day we should have started to film the other groups started filming we were behind and had a lot to do. We wanted our idea to be unique and different. We even had a vote to choose an idea but still couldn’t choose then we had advice from an ex a-level student who came to our lesson to help out and he said all these ideas where to similar to all the other media classes, then he said he like our old idea about a supernatural thriller which we didn’t carry on with because it was a bit rough , but we tweaked it up a bit and we decided to go ahead with the supernatural thriller. We had some ideas from the ex student Rushan and we developed more ideas and had a full storyline. We started thinking of the locations, props camera shots etc. our first location idea was to film in kings cross at the gas-o-meter which is an industrial site. Firstly we searched for images of the gas-o-meter to be sure we wanted to film there, we all liked the location it was perfect for our clip, after finding out location we started out storyboard and then decided on the props actors etc.

Filming (match-cuts)

In Mary's lesson our group had to go off and film different shots and it had to be someone doing something, in the previous lesson our class learnt about match-cuts i wasn't able to attend this lesson so one of my group members had to briefly explain it to me. In our piece we had to include a lot of various shots and a dialogue, we started with the filming and had to re-do some of the shots a couple of times so when it came to the editing we had numerous shots to choose from. we had to be really careful with the timing the location and try and keep it the same or make it link up to one another instead of having a completely different shot that has nothing to do with the previous shot and tohelp us do that we had a little help from a teacher just to help us understand the whole concept of filming and how certain shots can create a certain affect needed in the clip.

After the filming we transferred the files of the filmings we done to the computer ready to edit, we had little time to edit our shots but with all our quick thinking and being more familiar with the editing we were able to complete our clip on time, which i personally think is great it has everything we needed to include, but we weren't able to add soundtracks to it due to the time limit so we focused on just completing the editing and making sure it had all the shots,the dialogue and making sure it was steady.

what lies beneath analysis

Our homework for the Christmas holiday was to choose one thriller clip and analyse how suspense is created within the clip. The clip I have chosen to analyse is ‘What lies beneath’ because it used different techniques to demonstrate how camera movement, sound, editing etc. to build up tension within the clip/scene. Firstly the camera is on the main character of this scene, there’s a long shot to show us her movement and where she is , her facial expression is uneasy which indicates something is happening out of the ordinary, as soon as she stops on the stairs because she noticed something, the camera moves across in the same direction she’s looking at (panning shot) and that’s where the tension levels go high, the audience do not know where the camera I going and what it’s going to show and we know its something negative. The lighting is dark showing its night time which definitely makes the house creepy and scary, its gives us a clue on what’s going to happen next. There are low angle shots over the shoulder shot , close-up, and also point of view which is the most effect, it makes the audience feel what the character is feeling, uneasiness, tension, fear, curiosity etc. and we see what she see’s which makes it more interesting with all the steam in the bathroom which makes the character seem weak because she can’t clearly see anything especially where we know something bad is going to happen and were unsure of the outcome. Throughout out the whole clip there’s slow scary music (non-diagetic) and it gets louder and louder as she gets nearer to the door, there’s a track in towards the bath and we know each step she takes is a step nearer to the danger we think she’s going to face. When she gets to the bath the audience expected something to happen and nothing did we carry on looking at the bath and there’s water filled up in the bath and it seems that’s she didn’t fill it up and makes it very unusual which gives us another hint of something bad happening with the water so we look carefully at the bath and the water looking at the characters reflection then we see another persons reflection appear and the music goes loud and quick which plays a part in the tension created, if there was no music we wouldn’t be as scared . Then obviously she screams and her husband comes running to her rescue, the music changes all dramatically then there’s a close up of the water going down the drain showing that it is not the end and more is going to happen so the suspense isn’t gone it’s just low and it can go high at any moment which is what we expect after seeing that.

Analysing four thriller clips

In our lesson (Thursday 18th December 2008) we done a brainstorm on different types of thriller genres e.g. supernatural (sixth sense), psychological thriller (the shining) , murderous passion (what lies beneath), spy/action (bond films) etc. the brain storm helped us with the next part of our lesson. And helped us to identify the different representations of a thriller film.

We had to watch 4 different clips and analyse how each clip creates suspense. We filled out a sheet to write down the key features which creates the suspense , which were the lighting, the use of camera (movement, angle, distance), the music (sound, effects, soundtrack), editing and the setting and location. The sheet was really helpful to us because it was easier to identify the key components which makes a great thriller film/ clip. The first clip we watched was an extract scene from The Shining, the scene used was the bit where Danny was riding his bicycle through the corridors and stopping at room ‘237’, there is definitely suspense in this short scene due to mainly the camera shots and sound effects, firstly there’s a tracking shot of Danny riding his bicycle and slow scary music at the same time (non-diagetic) the use of the corridors make the audience anxious on what’s around the corner and we have the same vulnerability as Danny because the camera shot is behind the boy and on the same level as him. And we had to fill out the sheet for each clip analyse and focus on each of the techniques used (what lies beneath, 28 days later and collateral) after analysing each clip, our homework set was to choose a clip and analyse how suspense is created within the clip and blog it and post it . I chose what lies beneath .

The shining

my last lesson with Mary on Monday 15th of December, we watched a thriller film called the shining which I’m quite familiar with and find that it is a perfect example to give us an idea on how to create a thriller film using different techniques. while watching the film we had to fill out a sheet which was about how the music, camera shots and editing created high levels of suspense and tension throughout the film. This film definitely keeps the viewers wondering and thinking what’s going to happen next?
The director gives us the advantage of knowing more information then the characters but the director still makes us ponder and confused about the ending which makes it more interesting and thrilling.

Within 5 minutes of the film we already have an idea of the aim the directors trying to target or do we? The viewer may think they know what’s going to happen but on the contrary the director tries to confuse them when the whole plot of the film is going the opposite direction of what the viewers were .thinking would happen, which gives them a pleasant shock . Firstly the introduction soundtrack is a heartbeat affect which links to the camera shot of a birds eye view following the car, it seems like there’s a predator which signifies that the viewers have more power then the characters about the dangers there going to face, and also this birds eye view shot establishes remoteness and isolation I could already feel the tension building up, which shows that they made a good choice showing us the of the neglection happening In this scene by using the heartbeat effect and BEV. As we see more into the film we notice that there are initial stones which gives a cabin fever “signal” to the audience where the plot is going , the fact that the audience know the story makes us more engaged to the film, were already waiting for him to go mad and kill which makes the audience continue watching the film.

furthermore I find that the hotel was a great location to pick, the scene wear Danny rides his bike in the corridor, the camera is on the same level as Danny and is following behind him (tracking shot) along the corridors, which creates great suspense because we don’t know what’s around the corner of these corners and the fact the camera shot is behind him makes us feel what he’s feeling. And also the close-up of the room number ’237’ signifies that danger is lurking around and something bad is going to happen. When Danny enters the maze it gives us the same suspense as the corridors (not knowing what’s around the corner) but this time the sound repetition which gets louder and louder and the anticipation grows because the audience are curious on what’s going to happen when the sound reaches its final and loudest tone . The tracking shot in the maze shows us the different representations of the characters for example Jack and his leg limp slows him down which creates suspense but Danny also creates suspense ‘coz he’s speeding up, showing that both characters might meet at the end of each corner and each time the music gets louder we expect that to happen.

Overall the film was a great thriller film and it really gave us ideas and different techniques that we should use for our thriller film to create the tension and suspense needed. This film showed me that it’s not only about the location , its about how each scene signifies a certain plot behind it and how the camera shots are used to represent the meaning and you need to add the effects, soundtrack etc to give that high level of suspense needed for a thriller film.

newspaper thriller

In Our Lessons we had to prepare for a thriller clip. Firstly we were put into groups my group members were ola sevin and henok. we started with a storyboard of how our thriller would be so it was basically a preparation/plan before we did the real thing, we took digital cameras and took pictures of ola reading a newspaper on a chair and henok snooping around near the door, we were only able to take 12 shots so we tried to do a lot of different angles and camera shots to show what the storylines about by having close ups of the facial expressions, over the shoulder shot to show what he's reading etc. after we finished taking the pictures we printed them out and checked them to see if the shots were right.

The next lesson we were starting our thriller clip but me and shevin weren't able to do it that day due to religious reasons, so our other two members of the group had to do the work, they did a great job on getting the shots and as soon as me and sevin came back to the lesson we started on the editing with them. we used Macs computers for our editing, firstly we had to choose our first shot and cut some of the shots and join it together we had a lot of different ideas from the group so it was much easier to create the clips. our first shot was ola reading a newspaper with a happy expression on his face and then a close up of the newspaper he was reading, a over the shoulder shot to show us that someone was looking at ola near the door, a panning shot from the feet following up to henoks waist, another shot of ola(close up), then a long shot of henok walking towards ola, the camera goes back to ola trying to get away (hand held camera to show his movement and struggle) and lastly a medium shot of olas chair spinning around. after the editing we had to add the music which was kind of difficult because there was little time and so many to choose from, we werent able to complete all of the soundtrack for our clip but what we did so far was put joyful music when the camera was on olas happy face but then creepy music when the camera was on henok to show fear and danger which in contrast with the happy music and then the camera went back on ola and it went back to joyful music indicating that ola is not aware of the danger he is in which raises tension. we then added the soundtrack to the clip and saved it to the hard drive.